The Results

This year’s national Garden BioBlitz was held over the weekend of the 4-5 June.  Supported by Springwatch and the BBC’s Do Something Great campaign, scores of enthusiastic naturalists braved unpredictable weather to see what else called their gardens home.  Four week on, and we’re ready to announce the results.

A grand total of 1,292 species were spotted, plus a couple of hundred at genus or family level.  In total 93 people submitted a whopping 6,007 records, of which 5,389 were identified to species. 

For the full results, go to our Information Centre

Insects: 606 species
Plants: 572
Other invertebrates: 189
Birds: 75
Lichens: 30
Fungi: 23
Mammals: 22
Amphibians and reptiles: 23
Fish: 3

Highlights

Unsurprisingly, more invertebrates were seen than anything else (97% of animal species are invertebrates, after all!), but an impressive 22 mammal species were also seen – not too far off half the British species.  Badgers turned up in several gardens, along with foxes, both Roe and Fallow deer, and even Brown Hare, slow-worms, and a wild brown trout were recorded!

Six of the top ten most-recorded species were birds, with the blackbird edging out the house sparrow and robin for top spot.  The garden snail was the most frequently recorded invertebrate in 4th place, ahead of the blue tit, tree bumblebee, and wood pigeon: daisy, in 8th place, was the best-recorded plant while the Marmalade hoverfly and Goldfinch rounded out the top 10.

The Tree bumblebee only arrived in Britain in 2001 but has since spread rapidly across much of the UK and does particularly well in gardens. 2016 seems to be a poor year for helpful insects generally: the next commonest bumblebee species – the common carder – was down in 33rd place and the commonest ladybird (7-spot) was in 20th, seen in only a third of gardens.

What’s next?

If the Garden Bioblitz has given you a taste for wildlife recording and citizen science, the BNHC website has a list of all the site-based bioblitzes happening across the country.  Alternatively, you can always use the iRecord website or app to record the wildlife you see around you on a daily basis – it’s amazing how the sightings can stack up!

The Garden BioBlitz Team
@GardenBioblitz
www.gardenbioblitz.org

The GardenBioBlitz is run by a small team of passionate volunteers:

Jane Adams @WildlifeStuff
Richard Comont @RichardComont
Liz Drewitt @lillanature
John van Breda @JohnVanBreda
Ryan Clark @Ryanclarknature

If you are interested in helping us out with next year's event, please get in touch.

If you no longer want to receive this update, just email us at gardenbioblitz@gmail.com